Nassau explores business incubator program

Nassau County hopes to create business incubators in East Hills and Bethpage as part of a development company's renovations to dilapidated buildings in the communities, officials said Tuesday night.

The county's Local Economic Assistance Corp. established a subsidiary a few weeks ago to explore setting up the incubators, that together would consist of 40,000 square feet of space.

The new Nassau Business Development Corporation will issue a Request for Qualifications to identify companies, universities, hospitals and other not-for-profit groups that would outfit the space and manage it. The county isn't expected to cover the project costs.

Joseph J. Kearney, executive director of the assistance corporation, said the incubators would address a pressing need in Nassau: a dearth of low-cost space for startup businesses. "We're trying to be forward-thinking and proactive here . . . No one else I know of is doing this," he told a meeting of the corporation's board.

The incubators would be in 10,000 square feet of space at the former Pall Corp. headquarters building in East Hills and 30,000 square feet in former Grumman Corp. factories in Bethpage.

Developers Joseph Lostritto Jr. and brother Glenn, both of Steel Equities in Bethpage, donated the space last year when they negotiated tax breaks from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency to support revamping the structures. Earlier, the brothers had purchased the 95-acre Grumman property from the county for $15 million.

The development agency granted them a rare, 40-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement for the Grumman site, in part because of the extensive cleanup required. Steel Equities will owe no property taxes in the first three years, after that payments will accelerate over time depending on the property's rental income.

Jeffrey Seltzer, chairman of the assistance corporation board and former head of the IDA, said he hoped the incubators would spawn technology companies and others that create jobs. "We know people need space . . . This may go somewhere, it may not. But I think we should give it a try," he said.